The present disclosure relates to a lighting system for initiating change of a mammal's circadian state or well-being.
Productivity of humans and in general mammals is essential to the industrial world and the wellbeing of human kind. Optimizing the way that humans and generally mammals use their resources is essential to enable humans and mammals to perform more effectively. As such, machinery and better procedures have proven beneficial to human kind.
It is well known that the society has organized itself with around a generally fixed work schedule for production of all sorts. However, it is known that individuals each have an individual chronotype or circadian type defining a rhythm that, in most cases, will be more or less out of synch with the scheduled working hours.
Besides aiding efficiency during a work schedule, it is also recognized that lighting conditions can improve the overall well-being experienced by the individual user. Such improved well-being can lead to further increased efficiency or output. Usually lamps or light sources are designed to provide light that enables a human or mammal to see objects. This happens by providing a light source that emits a spectrum that directly or via reflections excites photoreceptors, specifically, rods and cones, contained in the retina. Hence an image formed on the retina by the lens in the eye results in the rods and cones transmitting signals to the brain carrying information about the shape and color of what is seen. This process occurs essentially instantaneously.
In addition, the retina also has a third photoreceptor: the photosensitive ganglion cell, the photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (pRGC), or intrinsically photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (ipRGC). Unlike the other receptors, the pRGC respond to light over time or in a cumulative fashion, and the pRGC are not image-forming. The pRGC provide the brain information about the ambient light intensity and colour.
Although some technological efforts have been made to create a workable “circadian pacemaker,” these efforts have been overly complex, impractical to implement or systems that have been limited to certain situations.
One such lighting system is disclosed in patent application US 2005/0015122. The publication discloses a method and a system applying a model based predictive control techniques and variations thereof using optimization schemes based on cost functions and mathematical models such as the Jewett-Kronauer model of the circadian cycle. However, control signals used in the system focus on the light intensity and are deficient with respect to the use of colors. Moreover, the control signals are focused on returning a subject “to a natural phase” and are deficient with respect to boosts of energy for the well-being of a subject. Also, the disclosed system and control signals do not provide any insight into how to make a functioning lighting environment that can be implemented as an ordinary lighting system in rooms in private homes, offices, factories, or hospitals for example. Also, the system and control signals disclosed do not provide any insight into how a light source can be configured to provide a variable color, and, in particular, the disclosed system and control signals do not provide any insight into how the color and intensity can be varied essentially continuously either individually or together. Finally, the system and control signals disclosed do not provide any insight into how to reduce power consumption and subsequently CO2 emissions.